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Message from the Principal

Wellington Girls' College —

Tena koutou katoa. Towards the end of Term 3 last year we heard there was a possibility we would be losing the Tower block, which was opened in 1970, because of the possibility that in a major earthquake the concrete panels on the outside of the structure might fail.

At the end of January this year we had it confirmed. A month of furious activity followed as the Ministry of Education worked out where they could put all the classes and what they could do to mitigate the risk until a permanent solution could be found.

On 2 March this information was released to the school community and we had plans for going forward. We had this sorted.

On 18 March I received a text from a former Board chair: Who knew the demolition of Tower would not be the biggest challenge of Term 1? How right she was. By then we knew the Covid-19 pandemic was coming and school closures were inevitable. We had a trial Working from Home Day on 20 March and realised by lunchtime that keeping our normal timetable if everyone was online all day was not sustainable. So, in the language that has become so well known to us all this year, we pivoted.

  • We decided at the very start that the focus had to be our people – our students and our staff, many of whom had small children at home who needed to be looked after or schooled, while they were also trying to teach
  • We gave laptops and Chromebooks to every student who needed them
  • We adapted the timetable to create learning blocks at the start of each day with time to get on and work and check in with teachers
  • Staff took home chairs, desks, screens, paper, books
  • We focussed on communications – a daily video briefing to students (and staff it turned out) to keep everyone aware of what was going on and alert them to any developments; a new quick emailing system to parents; Google Meets and Zoom Meetings for everything
  • We gave emergency supplies to families

On 23 March the students left; we followed two days later, with no idea when we would return.

For eight weeks we worked at home, we did our best to maintain learning but also to maintain spirits – and the work of our Head Students and the Year 13 leadership committees using digital platforms was outstanding in this regard. We knew we would get back to school and be able to sort things out – and of course that is what happened. Things were not quite the same and the smell of bleach and sanitiser was all around us for months, but we got there in the end.

2020 was not a year in which we achieved a lot in terms of annual plans or strategic goals. But we achieved a huge amount in other areas and our school values were never more important: Manaakitanga - kindness and generosity of spirit, Ngākau pono - loyalty and dependability, Whakarangatira - respect and leadership and Manawaroa – resilience; we learned we could work at home if we had to; we still managed to complete the curriculum and prepare students for NCEA; we even managed some sport and a few cultural activities and we learned a lot about ourselves.

We also learned that when (not if) something like this happens again, we will be able to cope, because we have good people on hand, an incredible Board and a senior staff who go many, many extra steps to make sure everything is working as well as it can.

Haere rā 2020, it’s been a year we will never forget!

Arohanui


Julia Davidson
Principal